summer

Today is my last day of class for this semester! I’m listening to the recording as I type this. Should I be paying attention? Probably….but when the teacher decides to record the presentation instead of having “live” (I’m taking the program all online but we meet at designated times online and interact through chat and talking into our microphones and that kind of thing) interaction and then start that record by saying he didn’t see any reason why we needed to meet since all of our material has been turned in, it kind of puts a damper on getting excited. Plus, he’s just talking about being sure you are in the right program and doing a recap on everything we have learned this semester. Yeah….no. I’d rather be thinking about what I’m going to do with all this free time I have on my hands.

Summer and I have a love-hate relationship. I love everything going on during summer, but I hate the weather. I’m one of *those* people who hate the extremes. Just give me 70-75 and I’m good (even with a little rain). There just something about being all sweaty that makes all the great things about summer a little less enjoyable.

There’s been a lot going on around my neck of the woods here lately. My son is STILL sick. They mentioned him possibly having asthma, but they don’t want to label him having that just yet. Hopefully, if it is asthma, it’ll be the kind he grows out of. They put him on a steroid treatment and sent him for a chest x-ray just to make sure it wasn’t pneumonia. Luckily, it’s just a virus (they think) inflaming everything, so hopefully he’ll be better here in a little while. His cough definitely isn’t as wet sounding anymore, so that’s a good sign.

Aside from all of the meds he’s been taking, he still is an outdoors man. This kid would live outside if I let him (I’m pretty sure I’ve already mentioned that but let me reiterate it). Our new thing this week is picking these beauties.

I was blessed with a non-picky eater (for now anyway). He LOVES fruits and veggies. So, for dinner and snack here lately, we’ve been having blackberries. When I say we have hundreds of wild blackberry bushes, I mean literally hundreds. We have an awesome crop this year too and I’m totally excited that my son is obsessed with picking these. Granted, he only picks them and eats them, but I’m super proud that my 18 month old can distinguish between a ripe blackberry and a not ripe one. It did take him a couple of red ones to realize it, but he got a hang of it quickly.

Yeah, I know, too many links. They are more for my reference so I can have a quick way to get back to the recipes. So, you can just skip over the above paragraph, unless of course you want to try making some stuff with blackberries.

Plums are also starting to come in. I’ll save all those recipe links for another day though =). I normally just leave the plums for the animals since we really don’t eat a lot of jellies or jams but I think I’ll make something with these this year. They look really good.

The other thing that makes me smile about summer is calving season. Who doesn’t love an adorable calf?

The one on the left that you probably can’t tell it is there (it’s by the tree) just dropped. The mama hadn’t even started eating her placenta yet (is that gross? Yeah, probably, but it gives the mom tons of nutrients that she needs and you get used to it after you’ve seen it a few times). The one on the right had just been born too and luckily for us the mama was on the other side of the fence so my son got to pet his very first calf. We used to raise dairy bull calves and once he get’s older I’m sure we will again so he can experience some responsibility. He already has the makings of being a great caregiver =)

All these things I love absolutely love about summer. We went wading in the creek the other day and it was heavenly. I love making memories!